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write your own review of the MFJ 1026 Noise & Interference Canceler.
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VK4TZA
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 30, 2008 01:04
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Works
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I purchased the MFJ1025 after reading eham reviews, and was willing to try anything to improve using 80M. My new QTH has S8 noise on 80M + the static crashes and other suburban electrical QRM. I use the 1025 as a canceller. It works. Most nights I can adjust the unit to provide down to S zero noise under the static crashes and suburban QRM. RX looses 1 (2) S point. 80M is now workable again. As the reports say, you need a good RX antenna. Mine is another (low height) 80M dipole that is 1 S point down from the TX antenna. There is room for improvement. Yes the phase and main gain adjustments are “peaky”, but it works.
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K0KS
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 6, 2008 10:56
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NOISE IS GONE --- Learn to use it !
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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It takes patience and understanding for this box but rewards are good. You must have a good sense antenna that hears the noise and you will null out desired stations in the same direction as the noise so it won't work for all situations. The null is deep and drops my BPL type noise by 30 - 35 dB. I added a rely to short the sense antenna so I don't blow the preamp when transmitting. The little whip is worthless but the pre-amp is necessary.
73 de Ken, K0KS
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VK7JJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 28, 2008 01:25
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Hopefully helpful hint
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Some observations that might help you decide:
1. It works best on any very strong local noise, eliminating it by near 100%
2. As the noise gets lower and more distant it is pretty much pointless.
3. When tuned to broad local noise it fixes the whole band, not just a spot frequency.
4. The instruction manual describes badly how to tune it. If I had not read the quick start mentioned by AE6CP on page 2 of this review I would probably have thrown the thing against the wall.
5. If you find it hard to find a null then TURN YOUR AGC OFF it makes a great difference. On my FT-857 the null is hard to notice until you turn the AGC off and then it is quite obvious and sharp.
6. In use, the RX signal strength of the wanted station is less than when the unit is turned off but the signal to noise ratio is hugely improved and that is what counts.
7. Your secondary noise antenna needs to be a good external antenna because the noise signals from your two antennas have to be the same amplitude or they cannot cancel out. So if the received signal from your second antenna is low, then the gain of your main antenna has to be reduced to that level and therefore the overall received signal level is reduced to that of your secondary antenna.
PS. My MFJ-1025 is a fully fledged MFJ-1026 inside with just the preamp switch spring disabled. It is easily restored and by placing a saddle on two pins to activate the preamp (download the MFJ-1026 manual and you will understand) and voila, you have the more expensive model. But after playing with the preamp for a while I felt it is a waste of time as it introduces obvious internal noise (as preamps do) and the variable preamp gain makes the tuning job more difficult.
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NL7Y
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 24, 2007 22:37
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Works!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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After fussing with an ANC-4 Noise Canceller for 12 years, I finally got a current model (Ver.4) MFJ-1026...local city noise runs S8-9 on 160M CW w/500Hz filters, mainly from power lines and electronic gadgets...my rigs-IC-765, TS-940SAT, and MK-V Field often struggle to break out a clean signal...the MFJ-1026 hooked to my GAP Titan as a sense antenna, then phased with the 160M Inv-L send/receive aerial cuts the noise to S0-1...BTW, I'm running the unit in-line with the receiver output/input RCA taps, and not feeding RF through it to the amp...the ANC-4 was not as effective at my QTH in a similar configuration, and gave at best 2-S units decrease in noise level.
The fuse bulb glows a bit when I run a KW, but who cares?...W8JI has some mods to improve performance on his Webpage.
73 Gary NL7Y
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K6ZB
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 12, 2007 14:23
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Good solution with external protection
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I obtained a model 1026 through an estate sale as I wanted to try this to remove severe power line noise in the 80 meter CW band. My main antenna is a screwdriver and the noise antenna is a vertical wire in a tree about 15 feet away. As I transmit QRO, I was concerned about overloading the AUX input, which has limited protection using an small incandescent bulb. W0EWM was helpful with his suggestion of a T/R relay.
What I found instead is a passive device from Array Solutions and ICE called the Receive Only Signal Processing Equipment. It looks like a small LPF and contains a matching transformer that saturates on high power, a blocking capacity to prevent high voltage spikes, and another incandescent bulb. Cost is under $50, and the only connections are at RF - using RCA jacks(!). The unit protectet the MFJ 1026 at my full 1 KW, but some of the power got back into the shack: I noticed that my keyer beeped on voice peaks. However, I had not grounded the ICE box, so after doing do (directly to my external station ground), that problem disappeared.
Performance of the unit is very good in terms of noise cancellation - nearly taking it to the ambient noise. The signal is suppressed also in my system, but not as much. I can fiddle with the controls to bring the signal up while keeping the noise at an acceptable level.
I'd give the unit a 5 if it had the protection built in - all it takes is that isolation transformer built into the ICE box.
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KC2GUY
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 26, 2007 14:15
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Very Good Unit, MFJ 1025
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I felt compelled to write this considering all the bashing of MFJ. I was looking for a Noise canceler and considered a few. The first one from MFJ didn't seem to work well. I returned it and after talking with others, there is a T/R switch that caused headaches with many others. They replaced it with a new unit where this problem was corrected. People that took my calls were very helpful and polite. I will now consider MFJ when I purchase other ham equipment.
The unit is well made and performs great. Good Job MFJ.
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EB5ESX
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Rating: 0/5
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Nov 19, 2006 10:16
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Very BAD
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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MFJ 1026 has a very high cost in Spain, and then i bought it new in USA using Ebay.
In a week it was in my house.
A 10 over 5 for Gentry Electronics, but a 0 for MFJ.
My 1026 is broken. Phase button doesn't do anything and paint of the box is really really bad ... horrible !!! I think that they have painted my 1026 with hand.
It isn't a good quality for a 180$ product.
Now i have to pay the cost to return it to MFJ :-(
Very bad for MFJ and its quality.
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W0EWM
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 19, 2006 10:09
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Big Help with Local Noise
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have been using the MFJ-1026 for over a year. I bought the first one to use with low band (80M and 160M) receive antennas. I use a 30' vertical copper wire to collect the local noise (noise antenna). My problem is with local noise sources in the area that "come and go" particularly on 80M. The MFJ-1026 will null an S-9+ local noise level to the residual band noise level of S-3(I turn the preamp off and insert attenuation to limit the "normal band noise" to S-3 on 80M and 160M).
After using the first MFJ-1026 for a while - and seeing its performance - I bought a second one to use with my normal transmit/receive antennas (Because of my automatic antenna switching system there wasn't a good way to share one MFJ-1026 between all of the antennas). I find that the MFJ-1026 also does a nice job eliminating local noise sources on the 40M, 30M, 20M, etc. bands (I have a second 30' tall vertical wire for the noise antenna on the second MFJ-1026).
I would rate the MFJ-1026 higher then a 4 for normal operation, but I believe the 1026 is missing a necessary antenna relay. The "light bulb fuse" on the noise antenna input is a poor way to protect the unit from being overloaded while you are transmitting. I installed noise antenna external relays for both of my MFJ-1026's to disconnect and ground the noise antenna for the unit when the transmitter is operating. This added significantly to the complexity of "integrating the MFJ-1026" with the rig due to needing external relays and additional "AMP KEY" outputs to key the additional relays. However, these external relays fully protect the MFJ-1026s from being overloaded and damaged through the external noise antennas while the transmitter is operating.
I don't know about other uses for the MJF-1026, but if you have locally generated "neighborhood noise sources" that are impacting your receive capability, I would definitely try the MFJ-1026.
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AC0DV
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Rating: 2/5
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Sep 13, 2006 17:51
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Updating my bad review
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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When I bought the unit in January... it didn't work out of the box. I sent it in and it took them a long time to get it back to me.
When I first got it back I spent a few minutes with the unit and seemed to do "something" but I didn't have time to learn how to use it effectively OR to put up a good external noise antenna... so I unhooked the unit and set it aside for awhile.
When I got back to hooking it up... it didn't work. (I never transmitted while it was hooked up... so that's not it... and the "fuse" or lightbulb is okay.)
I am updating my poor rating of "0" for a rating of "2" for now... since the folks at MFJ are willing to take my $7.00 and repair it yet again.
(Okay... so far it has cost $170.00 plus tax... plus shipping and $7.00 for repair... PLUS shipping and $7.00 <<>> for repair...)
I will update my review again after I get it back... probably sometime in December or January. Hopefully this time I will actually get a working unit.
I am updating my review just to let prospective buyers know my experiences. Reading the other reviews helped me decide to buy the unit... but the jury is still out when it comes to my actual opinion of the unit.
Even if I finally get a working unit... it will have taken a LOT of time and about $30.00. (And it will be out of warranty shortly after I get either a new or repaired unit.) So even if it works PERFECTLY... prospective buyers need to be wary. (I have also been told by several sources that this is COMMON for this particular unit.)
I plan on hooking it up to my new Hy-Gain Hy-Tower JR antenna with 80 radials... and I'll setup my Cushcraft MA8040V vertical up as a noise antenna.... but again... only IF I get a working unit.
If I get it back and it does work... I might change the rating to a higher number.
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N4JTE
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 13, 2006 15:33
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Patience pays off.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I should have posted this months ago but this unit {1026} got me back on the air after considering giving up 40 at night and I never took the time to say how well it worked for eliminating an horrendus pulsing, frequency shifting, 20 over noise that had me going bonkers.
To make it most effective put up a vertical away from transmitting antenna and that will be your noise antenna, mine doubles as 40 meter vertical.
DO NOT EXPECT INSTANT RESULTS!, you have to play with the knobs and follow instructions EXACTLY to get results. If you need help email; bobr1919@hotmail.com.
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